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A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

For Jewish transsexual teaching at Yeshiva University, no easy path to being a daughter

By Joy Ladin, JTAPublished April 30, 2012

NEW YORK -- If your mother has never seen your face -- if you have never had a face to be seen -- if, in a sense, you have never been born -- do you have a mother? If your mother has always called you "son," can you ever really become her daughter? For...

Synagogues slowly expanding inclusion to those with emotional, mental disabilities

By Shira Schoenberg, JTAPublished April 30, 2012

BOSTON -- On a recent Sunday, Ayla Watson celebrated her bat mitzvah.Ayla, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other behavioral difficulties, ascended the bimah and recited the Torah reading for Rosh Chodesh, the new month. The service...

Rabbi Roxanne Shapiro

D’var Torah: The ‘time out’ remedy

By Rabbi Roxanne J.S. ShapiroPublished April 25, 2012

The double portion Tazria-Metzora is abundant with everything we need to know about dealing with skin diseases and bodily infections. Offering us more than a search on the Internet, we are taught not only the signs of these diseases, but how we should...

Matthew Kaplan and Brian Carter

Matthew Kaplan, Congregation Temple Israel

Published April 25, 2012

Matthew, son of Jodi and Michael Kaplan of Creve Coeur, knows how fortunate he is just by eating a nourishing breakfast before school. Or by having a healthy snack prior to his sport practice and special food to celebrate a birthday or other happy occasion....

An image from Jonathan Samuels of Congregation B’nai Amoona.

Visions of Judaism

By David Baugher, Special to the Jewish LightPublished April 25, 2012

The photos are both simple and stark.  There is a Klezmer duo in Buenos Aires, a circumcision in Uzbekistan, a musician at a New York soup kitchen. Set in crisp black-and-white, dozens of scenes captured by Israeli native Zion Ozeri reveal an evocative...

Rabbi Joseph S. Ozarowski

JF&CS hosts discussion for child abuse awareness month

Published April 18, 2012

From May to December 2011, there were 3,455 reports of child abuse/neglect in St. Louis County. Each day the Jewish Family & Children’s Service Child Abuse Prevention Program works to reduce this number. Its four-tiered, evidence-based prevention...

Drake’s profanity-laced ‘re-bar mitzvah’ video filmed in Miami shul stirs controversy

By Debra Rubin, JTAPublished April 12, 2012

WASHINGTON—Thanks to hip-hop superstar Drake’s latest music video, there are now far more eyes focusing on Temple Israel’s bimah than there are even during the High Holidays. And even though the song’s lyrics are decidedly more profane than sacred,...

‘Adventure Rabbi’ visits Shaare Emeth for weekend of events

Published April 4, 2012

Congregation Shaare Emeth will present “God, Wilderness, Doubt and Faith: A Weekend with Rabbi Jamie Korngold,” April 20-22.   Known as the “Adventure Rabbi,” Korngold is a Reform rabbi who is nationally recognized for her pioneering work combining...

Dr. George and Darla Grossberg

H.F. Epstein Hebrew Academy gala to honor Dr. George and Darla Grossberg

Published April 4, 2012

The H.F. Epstein Hebrew Academy will honor Dr. George and Darla Grossberg at its 69th annual gala on  April 29. The honorary chair for the event is Gabe Grossberg.  Dr. Grossberg is the Samuel W. Fordyce Professor and Director of Geriatric Psychiatry...

Israeli hotel denies Conservative group use of Torah

JTAPublished March 23, 2012

An Israeli hotel denied the use of a Torah scroll to a group that intended to use it in a mixed-gender service. The religious supervisor at the hotel at Kibbutz Shefayim refused to allow a group of students from the Conservative Solomon Schechter Day...

 

Divine communication

By Rabbi Mordecai MillerPublished March 21, 2012

“Animal Sacrifice!”  Not exactly a concept that excites modern sensibilities in Western society.  Yet this is what confronts us every year as we begin the third book of the Torah, Vayikra or Leviticus. Setting aside our aversions to the notion for...

Fourth annual Shabbat St. Louis service planned

Published March 21, 2012

The fourth annual community-wide Shabbat St. Louis worship service will take place from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 7 at Congregation Shaare Emeth, 11645 Ladue Road in Creve Coeur. This year’s service will include the festival liturgy for the...

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